Evernight is a beautifully filmed drama that does it all: it’s endearing, funny, action-filled, suspenseful, has a smart plot, amazing actors, and an incredibly ambitious vision (of an already ambitious author) brought to life by the director!
I admit that I started this series out of boredom. I mean, that poster? The default poster for this show does it no justice. Terribly understates the mystical feel of the drama and is not the best photo of the ML and FL. After the first episode though, I’ve been hooked.
The leads: Arthur Chen does an amazing job as Ning Que. Having read the book, he does a great job of playing a cold-blooded bandit killer seeking revenge AND being the sweetest person to his little handmaiden. Ning Que’s character is very complex and I am so thrilled that he is doing NQ justice. I’m not interested in watching pretty faces with mediocre acting skills play their characters with stereotypical acting faces. It’s refreshing to see Arthur Chen as NQ because he really helps bring NQ’s obsessive revenge, shamelessness, and subtle romance with Sangsang to life.
Song Yi Ren…during the first episode, I actually wished that the main lead will fall in love with someone else! But Sangsang’s character is my favorite of the book and drama. Song Yi Ren does an amazing job brightening her character while still preserving the quiet nature of Sangsang. I seriously look forward to every one of her scenes and her low key blunt and sassy comments.
The romance: These two main leads have incredible chemistry! Sometimes their scenes together are such a tease because it can be so brief, but the endearing nature of it will tug at your heart.
The supporting cast: For reasons above, this show is already amazing, and they will continue to impress you with the talent of their supporting cast. It’s cringeworthy in other dramas when you get a scene with supporting cast or extras and the acting is terrible. This is the best drama with the most amazing supporting cast. Chao Xiaoshu (one of the best fighting scenes with NQ), Chen Pipi (you will love his bromance with NQ), Second Brother, Headmaster, and literally all of them are incredible actors. Even the extras die realistically in battles! And the children actors are talented as well and they’re in some pretty tough scenes.
The music: So good, so varied, and so well timed. You will not get bored listening to the amazing music. One of the songs is sung by Jane Zhang and her voice is incredible. One of the folk songs is written by Sangsang in the book.
The plot: The book is seriously epic in world building and character building so it has a strong foundation to create this story. I love trope subversions and Evernight is unlike other rehashed stories with different faces. It is genuinely funny and the humor is not forced and dragged without that annoying “I’m being mischievous” background music. When the humor happens, it’s short, fast, and effective.
Compared to the book: I started the series, then 1/4 of the way through, I wanted to read the book to get to the ending haha. And I feel in love with the story even more. It’s seldom to see a book be interpreted into tv/movie with the right feeling you felt while reading the book unfold. The director (a woman!) and this team were able to do that and more. I actually really like the little details that the director changed in the drama.
Having seen a little glimpse of the ending credits (I try not to watch too much of it), I have some pretty good hunches on what scenes will be added from the book, and I am so excited! It’s a beautifully written story and I’m happy that the caliber of the drama has been able to meet it. I can’t wait to finish the drama!
Final note: I’m sad (really sad) that Arthur Chen is not coming back for season 2. I heard there is even a season 3? I was even thinking of dropping this drama, but even if it is for just one season, it’s a happy experience watching this lovely drama unfold. I had once said I wouldn’t even look at the next seasons in protest, but I felt like that wouldn’t be fair for the director, actors, and crew as they didn’t have a say in the matter. Things happen, and maybe the next actor will surprise us. The fact is that season 1 is already a shoo-in.
What are you doing? Go watch this
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Breakout Hit but Sometimes a Miss!
Theres many things to like about this show. Evernight is a high production/ambitious adaptation of a webnovel by the name of Nightfall. The cinematography is breathetaking, showcasing natural landscape of snowy mountains, dessert plains, and grasslands. The music score is great, which heightens the scenes in every aspect. The cgi/effects are well done. The fight choreography is brilliantly executed, with alot of intensity and energy. Its a beautiful drama for viewing on a large screen format. The worldbuilding is neat/unique.My overall nitpick & setbacks about the show is the writing and its direction over the course/run. The onslaught of exposition makes the dialogue pretty heavy-handed. Too much telling, not enough showing. Example, Ningque gains abilities/powersets too quickly without any steady progression. The physical/learning process of Ningque's growth is shown onscreen inorganically. There are some faults in characterization, specifically the male lead character.
Ningque's personality isnt distinctive enough, other than he's a bit haughty. His characterization is inconstistent so he comes off a bit dull and overbearing at certain times. His growth is stagnant throughout the drama. Ningque exceeds well in combat and literature, but his finer quality is his relationship with SangSang. He's more interesting when he's interacting with SangSang or his peers. Chen Feiyu embodies Ningque in terms of appearance, voice, and physicality, although he can definitely improve in terms of acting. He underperforms in the emotional department, although he executes the action sequence with ease. He doesnt quite emote well with his eyes, and he twitches/furrow his brows quite often to my slight annoyance.
Sang Sang is my favorite character in the show. She's loyal, sweet, and endearing. She's also emotional and expressive, as she is seen moving around alot and drench in tears in the more emotional scenes of the show. She adores money and has a thing for cooking. Unfortunately, her character isnt written with much agency which results in less screentime & minimal dialogue compared to her onscreen counterpart. Its quite abysmal. Song Yiren portrays Sang Sang very well. She cries effortlessly and definitely makes Sang Sang appear as the heart of the story. She's very animated in her gestures and face expressions when she's emoting.
Ningque and Sang Sang's relationship is one of my favorite aspect. The chemistry between the two plays out naturally onscreen. Chen Feiyu and Song Yiren both portray their characters in terms of their relationship to each other well. The relationship becomes a bit muddled around episode 30 & up. Sang Sang gets the short end of the stick as Ningque becomes the the product of several girls' affection later on, which downplays Ningque and Sang Sang's importance to each other. The power imbalance between the two characters is offputting, which can be fix with proper development, but it lacks in the writing. This lessens both of the character's development and growth as individuals and a pair.
The antagonists in the show are somewhat decent. Longqing is rather stale and doesnt serve as any challenge for Ningque at all. Ningque's path to vengeance gets bogged down through various arcs, as he doesnt officially meet his eventual foe a little over halfway into the show without any builtup tension.
The way the romance played out in the show is rather odd. Too much underdeveloped characters that appears and are forgettable. Things happen to abruptly and things happen way too late which can be resolve much early on in the show. The show needs more emphasis on the cultivation aspect for Ningque's character. The writing juggles between several themes but the execution is a bit convoluted due to its focus on prolong arcs & extended list of various characters.
I'd say one of my favorite thing about the show is definitely the music score, not necessarily the original soundtrack. The mixture of traditional sounds & orchestral pieces really elevates the show in the more emotional/dramatic parts. Easily one of the best music score I've heard in any drama. It's almost quite majestic, fortunately, in comparison to the lackluster of the writing.
The action sequences is really great! Well choreographed and lots of energy.
Overall, there's many things to enjoy about Ever Night. The writing is questionable and falters a bit later in the show, although I commend the director for pulling off such a large scale of a show with it's setting, set designs, costumes, and fight sequence.
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This review may contain spoilers
Great fight scenes but weird romance
The fight scenes are great, story and plot is fine too. Even watching it 2 yrs later it still looks good.But theres just too many characters in this drama so its flipping and switching from characters to characters way too much. Thus theres alot of fast forwarding for me since theres some characters which i am not interested in and find that it just choke the story.
However theres great acting from some of its many characters.
The romance however between the male lead and the female lead just seems weird, afterall the male lead is supposed to be 18 yrs old, so that makes the female 11 to 13 yrs old. Even thou she is supposed to be 15 yrs old, but lets be realistic, if ning que is 3 yrs old when he found shang shang, thats just impossible for him to have raise her.
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Great Drama
Great drama with exceptional music: OST is in my humble opinion the best of any C-drama and I've watched 40ish so far. It doesn't matter how bad or stressful work is, once i hear first few tunes of opening song i'm transferred far, far away and my troubles are gone in an instant.Main protagonist, Sing Sing & Ning Qui play their roles very well and growth of characters and their skills is nicely done. Support actors are exceptional as well .
Story, acting, sets, costumes, CGI effects and fight choreography are all done quite well and very often you will run in to very emotional moments.
While not perfect, definitely worth the time and highly commandeered if you like this genre.
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Too much talking Not enough Action
I’ve had “Ever Night” on and off my PTW list for 2 years. I finally took the plunge because I was running out of good wuxia dramas to watch. As it turned out, what I thought I would like did not meet my expectations. What I thought I hated and delayed my decision to watch, turned out to be not that bad.Preconception but doesn’t mean they are true::
♦︎ "Ever Night” is a great wuxia drama with amazing fight scenes. A great story of our hero starting weak but becoming the strongest.
♦︎ The romance between Ning Que and Sang Sang is not my cup of tea, thus, it took me so long to watch this. I am a romance lover and if the romance doesn’t attract me, I might not want to watch.
What I Like❤️:
1. Sang Sang (FL) - This is a minor surprise as I usually do not like naive and innocent female leads. But Sang Sang turns out to be innocent yet smart and can take care of herself without being taken advantage of. She is so adorable! Ireine Song did a great job in showing Sang Sang’s innocence and adorableness without making feel like she’s another typical annoying female lead. I never would have thought Ireine was 25 years old (in 2018).
2. Ning Que (ML) - I have always liked an anti-hero. Usually in a wuxia cultivation drama, the male lead is weak but perfect, smart, outgoing and well-liked. Ning Que is different. He’s smart but calculating and keeps his cards close to his chest. He doesn’t care if you like him or not, and doesn’t often show interest in others. He’s not particularly cold, but also not particularly friendly.
3. Veteran actors - All the veteran actors in this drama shine the brightest. The younger generation really cannot hold a candle to them. I am particularly impressed with Chin Shih Chieh (Divine Talisman Master) and Ni Da Hong (Grand Priest of Light). Their scenes individually and also together during their battle are so well-acted.
4. OST - “Ever Night” has a very eclectic soundtrack. I was surprised to hear the fun “Take Your Life (取你的命)”. There’s also a good mix of songs that have a very historical/wuxia or romantic feel to them. My favorite song is probably the title song, “Changan (故长安)” by Jane Zhang (张靓颖) and “Let Me (任我)” by Reno Wang (王铮亮).
5. Production Quality - Although there aren’t too many fancy costumes, but I like what I see. Arthur Chen looks great in both black, white and navy blue. I also like the costumes of the Queen and Princess and their accessories. Crystal Yuan as the Book Addict looks beautiful and graceful. The sets and props do not look cheap or flimsy. Another thing I greatly appreciate is that actors use their own voice and there seems to be live recording. I think it’s quite rare for a historical drama in 2018 (though we see more in 2020’s).
What I have Mixed Feelings or Don’t Like 🤨
1. Romance - At first, I thought I might hate the idea of Ning Que and Sang Sang together. But they are so adorable in the first half of the drama that I want to see them as a couple. I looked forward to ep 47 when they had the big confrontation/heart-to-heart. Unfortunately, their chemistry went downhill after ep 47. Nothing romantic happened, they didn’t seem to have that many scenes together. Ning Que did not look like he was in love with Sang Sang, nor did he really act that differently. I think he looked like he was more in love with Mo Shan Shan during those shy scenes. I was sorely disappointed. I felt bad for Sang Sang. It didn’t help that Ning Que seemed to flirt with everyone.
2. Plot/Pacing - It took me about 10 episodes to get into the groove. But once we got to the arc of the Academy and the exam, it was fun for me again. I want to see more Academy shenanigans and actual learning. I really didn’t see much learning/studying/training in the Academy. Unfortunately, the last ⅓ of the drama was too slow.. There’s too much talking and not enough action. I typically enjoy someone like Ning Que learning and training to become the hero of the story. Unfortunately, the drama spends too much time on politics and the fight for the throne. In the end, politics didn’t really play a big part in Ning Que’s cultivation and revenge story. So much time was wasted on the princes. I would love to see more of the Academy instead of the royal family.
3. Action - I was hoping there will be plenty of action scenes throughout the drama for this wuxia/fighting fan. Unfortunately, there are barely any action scenes in the first half of the drama. I was expecting something during the battle between Light & Talisman, but the battle was just too poetic with fireworks and rainbows. Argh… I was so disappointed! Give me some good CGI fights if they are too old to do wire work. I have to wait till the last couple episodes to see a few good fights. I do appreciate the lack of standing around during fights or twirling/spinning. These hard-to-come-by fights are fun and exciting to watch. I was also hoping to see more of the disciples in action. They are interesting in theory but aside from the exam, and the last episode, we barely see their gifts in action. It’s just a lot of hanging out and chatting. These disciples just don’t make for exciting drama watching. If not all of them are the fighting type, at least have Disciple #1 and #2 do some fighting. I really had high expectations.
4. Prince Long Qin - I am not sure how I feel about this character. Is he a true villain? Not really. He just has a different belief system than others and is very stubborn about it. But, he also seems very cartoonish as a character. This character probably is the most difficult to play as Long Qin when first introduced and the Long Qin in the last episode are very different. I think Sun Zu Jun did a decent job.
5. Pizza Hut - I just cannot NOT talk about Pizza Hut. This has got to be the most ridiculous product placement in a historical drama. Once I saw pizzas and wings for the first time in episode 7,, I cannot unsee them in every other scene they show up. I can deal with the snacks but pizzas are just too much for me.
6. Ugly Wigs - What is up with the ugly wigs for all the male characters???
Other Random Observations:
1. Arthur Chen was so young in this drama (about 18 years old). His acting is decent but not quite up to par.
2. I can’t help but stare at Sun Zu Jun’s abs.. The 6-pack looks so toned but fake at the same time.
3. The height difference between Arthur Chen and Ireine Song is just too much to make the romance believable.
4. Love the bromance between Ning Que and Chen Pi Pi.
5. I want to see more of the history and romance between the King and Queen.
6. So surprised to see Leon Lai as the King. I can’t believe he’s changed so much and not the heartthrob that I remember.
Completed: 11/22/2022
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i love this drama!
I was planning to drop this drama when i found out that it contains 60 episodes for I don't have patience in watching such a long drama because I wanted to know the finale after few watching. But then, the drama suprised me for having great patience in watching without skipping from episodes to next episodes. I was surprised that i was able to watch the 60 episodes from first up to the last episode with enjoyment.This is my first time to watch this young actor Chen Fei Yu, and i found him interesting, the longer I watch the sooner that i fell in love to his acting, I found him pretty good! Song Yi Ren is cute and her role as Sang sang fits her so well. Chen Fei Yu and Song Yi Ren has good chemistry together in this drama.
It was a pity that he left the serie for the second season because i like him more to be Ning Que than Dylan Wang. In fairness to Dylan Wang, I like him too... but it would be much enjoyable to watch if Chen Fei Yu would be the same actor to play in Ever Night season 2.
For me, I love this drama so much! I love the sound track especially the theme songs. I love the story! ... meaning to say... i rated this drama as number 1 from all the drama I watch so far....
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Have rewatched several times
This is one of the few dramas that I enjoy rewatching. I always like dramas about underdogs rising to the top, w/c helps me feel good/entertained during these trying times. I especially liked the relationship between the ML and Chen Pipi, and ML and his teacher (loved the old guy). I did not care for the ML and FL relationship, and felt a little "uneasy" about it, considering ML raised the FL since she was a baby. The height difference also does not help. The emperor was funny and charming as well.I like how they ended the drama, even though there's a season 2. I have watched Season 2 and sad to say, I did not like that as much as this one.
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Easily Top 5 on my Chinese Drama List
I don't need to explain too long here.Story line as per synopsis, with perfect amount of plot twist keep us engaged and entertained through the series.
The beauty of this series is from emotion between main leads looks real and believable.
So it is good characters and good acting!
CGI is great! Fighting scenes are great too. Not too mention the fighting choreography is very detail although with CGI effect here and there. The CGI and fighting choreography are balance and compliment each other. It is not like two people throw punch, then the CGI light got fighting, without the people body move an inch.
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More Like Never Night!
With a grandiose beginning narrating the back story of ever night, it fails to give justice to it. This show is undeniably a treat for the wuxia genre fans as it is packed with good sets, production, good and suitable music, well-choreographed fights, good wuxia based scenes and CGI and a good cast. Yet, it doesn't succeed in grabbing the attention of the mainstream audience, obviously because, with a whopping 60+ episodes, it has a very loose storyline and fails to utilize the finely created characters to the fullest potential. There were several speculations of several characters bringing some twist and turns to the plot but they never do, especially the princess character. The grandeur with which she was introduced she doesn't do much in this season. Maybe, more might come in next season. The main characters do undergo some decent character growth as opposed being a bit unlikeable at the start. The penultimate twist was a bit surprising, although not foreseen. It was quite frustrating to know that after spending so much time with this there was no ever night.This could have been aptly renamed as "Ever night: Chapter one The revenge" or something on those lines. Despite its flaws, it was enjoyable for a wuxia fan.
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This review may contain spoilers
Great Premise but Quite Boring
OVERALLIt took me yearsss and one drama recommendation for me to watch this drama. The whole drama had such a great premise, even if these aren't ideas that we have not seen before. The characters had a good back story, and the fight scene from the beginning hooked me. However, the drama got boring quite fast. There was so much drag time that I was able to let my mind wander and think about all of the things that went wrong. I don't believe I will be continuing the second season. Not because of the change in the male lead, but because this season was quite disappointing. I am quite interested to see Sang Sang's character reveal, but with the lack of character development in S1, I doubt S2 could do any better. I think after hearing so many good things about Ever Night, I expected more, and I didn't get it.
Positive Points:
-There were a handful of great fight scenes that were well directed and edited
-Good premise for plot and characters
-Good cinematography and CGI
Negative Points:
-Lacked character development
-Lacked plot development
-Felt dragged out with 60 episodes
STORY
So much could have been done to the story to improve it. The issue could have been that we were given so many side characters and so many side stories. We had to learn about the Haotian, Tang Empire, the Academy, Demonic Cult, Xiling Immortal Shrine, etc. The integration of that many groups, their beliefs, and their rules for this overarching theme of "eternal night" didn't feel quite convincing. It wasn't weaved together into a way where I felt like certain groups, scenes, or even characters were necessary to drive the plot forward, but I had to sit there and watch so many scenes of it. I questioned a lot of the characters/groups and their importance for the drama A LOT. I feel like when I question things like that, that lowers my watching experience.
ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS
I commend the two leads and any rookie actors/actresses in this drama because they worked alongside so many veterans. Not only that, the acting in here didn't felt too forced and was quite natural. I appreciated many characters in here and how they're not invincible even though they reached certain stages of cultivation. They don't always leave unscathed and don't always come off as untouchable.
Ning Que had a great character story on why he felt the need to cultivate and get revenge. His character was a well-written anti-hero underdog that was easy to like and root for. While I liked his character story, I hated how he had little to no character development. This made Ning Que my biggest issue in the drama as it lacked the umpf! and satisfaction I craved for in a main character for this type of drama setting. I feel like this was due to that it was written for the drama to have multiple seasons. Despite that, it made no sense to me why a particular sequence of events went down the way it did for him. Second Brother and everyone saw no worth in Ning Que's ability to cultivate, yet he got into the Second Floor (this could be argued though). When he got to the Second Floor, he was never really taught cultivation, and that's where it threw me off. We see him waste his time running around with no improvement to his character. And these were a good chunk of episodes too. He only got his "real lesson" when the Sage punished him. There's more that I could rant on with his character, but I'll stop here.
MUSIC
The music was quite interesting, in terms of the soundtracks. I enjoyed it, even though it's not songs where I would add to my playlist. There was a mix of everything, and I think it matched the drama well and was well-edited into the scenes. I enjoyed the thought into the editing when adding natural sounds and layering them with music and other sounds (such as during fights).
RE-WATCH VALUE
I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. I just felt like it isn't worth sitting through if you're not a fan of the novel, actors/actresses, or the drama itself. It'll be hard to sit through again, especially since this is just season 1 and currently with season 3 up in the air.
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GREAT FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE HIGH FANTASY AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE WITH A BIT OF MAGIC
Okay so comparing it to this to GoT doesn't do it justice because it is SO MUCH BETTER. The sets, costume, locations are all top quality and you can see that everyone behind the scenes put 100% effort into all the details. If i could give the music a hundred million stars i would it was that good oml. As far as the acting goes I think everyone did a pretty good job convincing us that they are their character, but at times you can tell that some of the actors are a bit off, but for the most part everyone is good throughout. Also all the people aren't white so it's actually bearable.At first I had trouble keeping all the storylines straight but it wasn't too hard to understand, just a lot of different characters with a lot of different motivations. All of them added to the overall plot though so there wasn't too much filler which I am thankful for. I never read the novel so I'm not familiar with the source material but I still managed to keep up for the most part.
A lot of people took problem with the character of Sang Sang and the actresses portrayal of it but I think it was well done and made sense. She was actually one of the best actors in my opinion and her micro-expressions add such a charm to the character of Sang Sang. While watching it remember Ning Que is all that she has known and her only family and also that she is sick from her chilling disease and he is the one who takes care of her so it makes sense that she is extremely attached to him and he is to her as well..
ALSO IF ONE MORE PERSON SAYS HE IS LIKE HER DAD I AM GOING TO SCREAM. LIKE I GET THAT HE WAS THE ONE WHO FOUND HER AND THAT THEY HAVE BEEN TOGETHER ALL OF THEIR LIVES BUT THE WEI CITY GENERAL LITERALLY SAID THAT HE FOUND THEM AND TOOK THEM IN AND DOES ANYONE REALLY THINK A 5-8 YEAR OLD IS CAPABLE OF RAISING A BABY NO
It also has to be said that a lot of people body shame Sang Sang which is just not cool and plain mean like she looks like a cute young girl it's not like she lives a glamorous life plus she has so much more to offer so protect Sang Sang okay?
The show also does justice to female characters making them complex and giving them autonomy and not just serve as love interests or plot devices. Speaking of there is very little romance in the show which is the opposite of what I usually look for but all the character relationships were so well done I didn't even miss it.
ALSO ALL THE GUYS ARE SO HOT.I KNOW THAT'S SHALLOW BUT I CAN"T WRITE THIS REVIEW AND NOT MENTION IT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A DRAMA WITH THIS MANY GOOD LOOKING MEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. OBJECTIFICATION IS BAD STAY IN SCHOOL KIDS BUT DAMN EVERYONE IS SO HOT ITS UNREALISTIC CAN THE CASTING DIRECTOR FIND ME A BOYFRIEND
Anyway definitely give this drama a chance because it is hands down one of THE BEST DRAMAS out there and I can't wait to watch Season 2!
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